A new trend: furniture that's organic

By STEPHANIE M. LEE San Francisco Chronicle

Published: Friday, March 1, 2013 at 1:00 a.m.

Last Modified: Wednesday, February 27, 2013 at 6:40 p.m.

Zem Joaquin had a furniture dilemma.

In 2005, the interior designer was trying to make her Marin County house a healthy environment for her two toddlers. But virtually all the couches on the market, she learned, contain foam with toxic flame retardants, the unintended result of a 1970s California law.

So with a furniture maker's help, Joaquin designed her own sofa. Yellow and wide enough to seat seven, it is made of sustainably harvested wood, natural latex foam, organic wool -- and no flame- retardants.

"I ended up actually designing my own furniture because there wasn't an alternative out there yet," said Joaquin, 42. "Things have changed dramatically since."

Joaquin is among a growing number of consumers whose desire to keep health hazards out of their homes has given rise to a new niche market: organic furniture.

First there was organic food, then organic clothing. Now, there's furniture with stuffing, upholstery fibers and wood that are certified as free of flame-retardants, formaldehyde and other common chemicals. There's a big enough market now that Joaquin has started Ecofabulous.com, a website that tracks stylish, eco-friendly products.

They aren't cheap. Joaquin spent more than $4,000 on her custom couch. Sofas from Ekla Home, a Los Angeles company, start at $2,500.

The prices are high largely because the materials are expensive, said Emily Kroll, who founded Ekla Home in 2007.

Despite the stiff costs, sales have shot up 30 percent in the last 12 months, she said. Most of her customers are young, environmentally aware families.

"It's been generally kind of slow-building," she said. "This past year, we've had definitely a spike and more momentum based on the articles that have been coming out."

Kroll was referring to the media coverage over a 1975 California law, Technical Bulletin 117, that requires polyurethane foam in furniture and children's items to resist an open flame for 12 seconds. To comply, most manufacturers douse the foam with flame retardants before sending their products to retailers nationwide.

Scientists have linked the flame retardants to health hazards such as infertility, developmental delays, lowered IQs in children and cancer, and studies show they do little to delay the spread of flames.

This month, a state agency proposed undoing the law and changing the testing requirements in a way that could encourage manufacturers to stop using flame retardants by July 1, 2014. But Ekla Home and other eco-friendly furniture makers have a head start on wooing health-conscious customers.

Textiles are a small yet growing fraction of the $32 billion U.S. organic industry. Organic fiber sales rose 17 percent from 2010 to 2011, totaling $708 million , according to the Organic Trade Association, reflecting an uptick in customer demand for chemical-free upholstered furniture, clothing, linens, bedding and mattresses, said Barbara Haumann, the organization's spokeswoman.

Kroll started Ekla Home because, she said, she was "upset that young babies and people of reproductive age were being exposed to the chemicals that were potentially harming generations to come."

The problem for Kroll was that TB-117 was, and still is, the law for upholstered residential furniture sold in California. But she discovered another state law, Technical Bulletin 133, which sets stricter requirements for seated furniture in public places, such as hotels, prisons and health care facilities.

TB-133 is tougher to meet because public buildings are more susceptible to arson and accidental fires, state officials say. As a result, the flammability test is different: Instead of testing polyurethane foam with a small, open flame, TB-133 requires that a couch resist a flame from a square gas burner. A product that passes TB-133 automatically passes TB-117.

So Kroll designs her couches in compliance with TB-133. She wraps the cushions in three layers of material -- wool, organic canvas and the outer fabric -- that significantly slow down the burn rate, she said.

Kroll's fans include Arlene Blum, executive director of the Green Science Policy Institute in Berkeley and a chemist who has pushed to regulate flame-retardants. A few years ago, Kroll gave Blum an orange couch for her home and a blue one for her office.

Flame retardants were all over Blum's old sofa, she said, but they've virtually disappeared from her house dust since the orange couch replaced it.

"I work on it and watch birds," she said. "I know there are no flame retardants in it. It makes me very happy."

This story appeared in print on page E3

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